30-30 bolt action

elktaxi1

Well-Known Member
Joined
Aug 24, 2011
Messages
146
Location
martinsdale,montana
yes that is right bolt action in 788 remington. i was told yesterday to reload it the same as a 300 savage or light 308win. anyone have one or load for one. i have had it since i was 8yrs old and going to give it to my 8yrold son for x-mas. any ideas or data for one.gun)
 
yes that is right bolt action in 788 remington. i was told yesterday to reload it the same as a 300 savage or light 308win. anyone have one or load for one. i have had it since i was 8yrs old and going to give it to my 8yrold son for x-mas. any ideas or data for one.gun)

the 788 action is actually stronger than the 700 action if that matters much. But even with it's strength, I would never think of using .300 Savage load data! Perhaps 35 grains of H335 under a 150 grain bullet (that load is about 40Kpsi so it's fine to start with). I'd probably call Hogdons and ask them to help you find a few 48K psi loads for the 788 Remington
gary
 
hodgons is who i was talking to and they said to work are way up but to use powders compatabile with the 300 sav because of the 788 action. just had never though of something like this after loading for it for the last 40 yrs.
 
Great gun, veryaccurate,BUT if you overload it, stick the case, soft bolt is prone to breakage, that happens ,:rolleyes:your up the creek
 
Stick with published load data period is my advice. The cases are too thin to put much more pressure on them. For deer size game give the 125 Nosler ballistic tip a try. I use it my 308 Win, 30X47 HBR rifles and my 30-30AI Contender 14" barrel pistol and it is very accurate and a deer hammer. H-322 works really well with 125 through 170 gr bullets in the 30-30 Win.
 
I have owned and loaded for two different 30-30 bolt guns, a Savage and a 788......I pushed the velocity envelope on the 788.......accuracy went south when I pushed the loads much past 30-30 level........stick with 30-30 loads and enjoy it for what it is, you will never make it a 300 Savage.
 
Great gun, veryaccurate,BUT if you overload it, stick the case, soft bolt is prone to breakage, that happens ,:rolleyes:your up the creek

bolt was made of some kind of 4xxx series chrome moly steel. Appears to be about 28rc, and that's pretty much compairable to what everybody has used since the early fifties. The bad part is the rear locking lugs rather than the normal front locking lugs. If it were a new rifle, my guess would be 4150 pretreat steel, and that's pretty stout material. What the reciever used I don't know as I never sent one to the lab.
gary
 
My 788 30-30 shot very well, its limiting factor was the clip, which is rather short. What we found that worked well was a 125gr Sierra FNHP ontop of 34.7gr IMR 4064, WLR primer. Good deer rifle out to 200 yards if you shot it enough to know where to hold, probably farther but never tried. Congrats on a nice rifle.
Daniel
 
I have quite a bit of experience loading the 30/30 in two different single shots over the last 25 years. The 1st a 14" T/C I was pushing a 150gr Sierra spbt about 2300fps with something north of 30gr IMR 4198. The other is a NAA carbine pushing a very hard cast 155gr Flat nose bullet as high as 2600fps with 30+gr of IMR 4198 till ejection became unreliable so I backed off 1gr and am getting 2500fps now .
I don't recommend these loads to anyone but its doable and I found accuracy improved as I filled more of the case, also case life was as long as 15 loads before necks would split. With the previously mentioned cast bullet load I'm getting about 5" groups at 200yds. Good hunting accuracy!
 
The 30-30 has a thin case. I would not reload it to 300 Savage or 308 Win levels but you should be able to safely load that case to 30-30 Ackley Improved levels with no fear.

Barstooler
 
I have quite a bit of experience loading the 30/30 in two different single shots over the last 25 years. The 1st a 14" T/C I was pushing a 150gr Sierra spbt about 2300fps with something north of 30gr IMR 4198. The other is a NAA carbine pushing a very hard cast 155gr Flat nose bullet as high as 2600fps with 30+gr of IMR 4198 till ejection became unreliable so I backed off 1gr and am getting 2500fps now .
I don't recommend these loads to anyone but its doable and I found accuracy improved as I filled more of the case, also case life was as long as 15 loads before necks would split. With the previously mentioned cast bullet load I'm getting about 5" groups at 200yds. Good hunting accuracy!

you are aware that the action is good for about 42K psi max, and 26 grains of 4198 is considered to be max? I'm just thinking about being safe
gary
 
The 30-30 has a thin case. I would not reload it to 300 Savage or 308 Win levels but you should be able to safely load that case to 30-30 Ackley Improved levels with no fear.

Barstooler

I fool around with more than one wildcat built off the 30-30 case, and learned fast to keep a 3/8-24 tpi pulley tap in my shooting box. I use this to pull out cases that come apart. But lately I've almost quit using 30-30 brass in favor of .225 Winchester. The case is much stronger, but very similar deminsionally. Loads are slightly different, but even then not a whole lot.
gary
 
Warning! This thread is more than 12 years ago old.
It's likely that no further discussion is required, in which case we recommend starting a new thread. If however you feel your response is required you can still do so.

Recent Posts

Top